Our History

Family. Friends. Community.

Established in 1964 in a small east Texas town, Quinlan State Bank was the long-time dream of retired oil man Bruce Clardy. Clardy served as Chairman of the Board of Quinlan State Bank, located near his ranch about 45 miles east of Dallas, until his grandson Michael A. Barnett took over in 1983.

In 1987, Barnett bought a failed bank in the Dallas-area and renamed the institution Benchmark Bank. Barnett grew the bank to include 6 branches expanding from East Texas to the Park Cities. He also opened a title company, Benchmark Title Services, in 1998 to provide one-stop shopping for customers.

In 2002, Barnett sold all of the bank branches except one, and Benchmark opened its current headquarters in The Shops at Legacy in Plano. A few years later, a branch in the Park Cities, on the corner of Hillcrest and Lovers Lane in Snider Plaza was added. In an effort to further meet their customer’s needs, Benchmark Bank, opened branches on McKinney Avenue in Uptown Dallas and on Lamar in Austin, Texas in 2012. In 2013, a second branch was opened in Austin on W. 35th Street. Our newest branch opened in June 2015 in The Woodlands, a suburb north of Houston.

Benchmark Title has offices in Plano, Park Cities and Uptown Dallas. Benchmark Title closes commercial and residential transactions all over North America with over 35 employees, nine closing teams, four title attorneys and its own examination department. Learn more about Benchmark Title.

Benchmark Bank – Home Loan Division is stands ready to serve your home mortgage needs with offices in Plano, Dallas, Austin, Houston, The Woodlands and San Antonio. Led by an experienced and professional sales and operations team, we offer a full suite of mortgage products.

Benchmark Private Wealth Management was established in 2014 to more completely serve the needs of our clients. Basing their business on the cornerstones of trust, integrity, respect and family, the experienced PWM team partners with their clients to realize their financial goals.

All of the Benchmark companies share the same core value that the customer is our top priority.